And the play they have coming out of the timeout is… Frye throwing a ball out of bounds, missing a somewhat disgruntled LeBron. And then Frye fouls David West, in the gam for McGee, who makes both free throws.

Durant gets to the line once again, making both free throws. James misses a three, the long-range game isn’t clicking for either team yet. Durant knocks down a shot. and then the Warriors get the ball back after Cleveland’s Iman Shumpert misses close to the hoop. Golden State takes a 20 second timeout.

Durant hits two free throws. And then, hey, a basketball game breaks out! LeBron hits a shot that’s answered by a Durant dunk. On the other end, Love feeds LeBron for a basket… And then Steph Curry misses a three and it’s like the spell is broken. Both teams go cold for the next few possessions.

Klay Thompson makes a layup. That’s good for the Warriors. Then Draymond Green gets called for his second foul, this one on DeAndre Liggins and when he expresses his displeasure, he gets T’d up. That’s very very bad for the Warriors. Kyrie Irving makes the technical but Liggins misses both of his free throws.

Aaaaaand the Celtics collapse. The Knicks have come all the way back to tie things up 112-112 with 1:06 to go. I am now officially okay with having to switch over to Warriors/Cavs here in a few minutes.

And we’re in the Free Throw Shooting period of this game. Celtics are up 109-100 with 3:38 left but Courtney Lee is on the line to shoot free throws. He makes one of two, and that’s a 5-0 run for the Knicks.

And back at Madison Square Garden, the Celtics have a 107-96 lead over the Knicks with a little over 5 minutes to go. The Knicks were threatening to make it close earlier but it seems to be getting away from them.

Maybe the most disappointing part of this game is that J.R. Smith is out wit a serious thumb injury. I’m not entirely sure the Cavaliers will miss his contributions, he’s not exactly the most reliable player, but as pure entertainment he will be missed. Who else would take the time to chat with his friend during the middle of a game, while he’s on the court?

Predictions

You know what? After this year I really, really should stop making predictions. I’m going to say that the Cavaliers win today, but only because it’s an afternoon home game taking place on a holiday weekend. Not the ideal circumstances for any west coast team, even the Warriors. Either way, don’t be shocked if the first half of this game is played a tad more sluggish than your average prime time game.

Your thoughts? Do the Warriors get some measure of revenge after months and months of “3-1” internet memes or do the Cavaliers ride the momentum of playing after the first Cleveland Browns win of the season. Email your predictions to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet @HunterFelt.

As always, a lot of basketball going on today. Currently, the Boston Celtics are up 88-82 on the New York Knicks heading into the fourth quarter. it started as a rather groggy game but it looks like it’s headed to an entertaining finish.

The Chicago Bulls will be facing the San Antonio Spurs at 5:00pm EST. The Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder will be playing at 8:00pm and late, late, late in the evening the Clippers and Lakers will battle it out for local bragging rights around 10:30pm EST.

Preamble

The last time the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors faced each other the Warriors were coming off the best regular season in NBA history and were a series win away from a seemingly inevitable championship that seemed practically inevitable. It looked like they had the series wrapped up when they took a 3-1 series lead over LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

But, as we learned time and time again this year: just because an outcome is all but unthinkable and unimaginable, it doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. The Cavaliers won the next three games, dispatching the stunned Warriors in Game 7.

While everyone in Cleveland enjoyed their first championship parade in over half a century, the Warriors went to work in the offseason by replacing Harrison Barnes, the designated goat of the previous postseason, with perennial MVP candidate Kevin Durant.

All this means that, for maybe the first time this season, the Warriors have something to prove. After all, they didn’t bring in Durant to help them defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves or Denver Nuggets. As Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue has pointed out: it’s looking increasingly like Warriors-Cavaliers is going to be the biggest rivalry since the glory days of Celtics/Lakers.

So, it should be a great game, or at least a worthy diversion for anyone looking for an excuse to slip away from family drama for a few hours. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about? As always, we welcome your contributions. You can either send us an email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or tweet (to @HunterFelt) and we’ll share your thoughts to the rest of the world (or at least the percentage of the world that happen to be reading this). It’s the Golden State Warriors vs the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. The game will start at 2:30pm EST, but I’ll be hanging around here to keep you company until the action starts.